Official Summaries

Affordable PLUS Repayment Options for Parents Act of 2025

This bill allows borrowers of Parent PLUS Loans to repay their loans under an income-contingent repayment (ICR) plan or an income-based repayment (IBR) plan.

Under current law, borrowers of Parent PLUS Loans are only eligible for the following repayment plans: the standard repayment plan, the graduated repayment plan, and the extended repayment plan. These borrowers are generally prohibited from repaying their loans under ICR or IBR plans. However, borrowers may become eligible for the ICR plan upon consolidation of their loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan. This bill removes these restrictions to allow a borrower of a Parent PLUS Loan to repay the loan under an ICR plan (even without consolidation) or an IBR plan.

The bill allows these expanded repayment options to be available to new and existing borrowers of Parent PLUS Loans.

Current Full Text

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1759 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1759

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow borrowers of Parent 
 PLUS loans or loans under section 428B made on behalf of a dependent 
student to repay such loans pursuant to an income-contingent repayment 
      plan or income-based repayment plan, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 27, 2025

Ms. Waters (for herself, Ms. Adams, Ms. Bynum, Mr. Carson, Mr. Davis of 
     Illinois, Mr. Doggett, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Johnson of Texas, Ms. 
 McClellan, Mrs. McIver, Ms. Norton, Mr. Olszewski, Mrs. Ramirez, Ms. 
Schakowsky, Ms. Sewell, Ms. Stansbury, Mr. Swalwell, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. 
Thompson of Mississippi, and Ms. Tlaib) introduced the following bill; 
     which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow borrowers of Parent 
 PLUS loans or loans under section 428B made on behalf of a dependent 
student to repay such loans pursuant to an income-contingent repayment 
      plan or income-based repayment plan, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Affordable PLUS Repayment Options 
for Parents Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. INCOME-CONTINGENT REPAYMENT PLAN.

    Section 455 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e) 
is amended--
            (1) in subsection (d)(1)(D), by striking ``, except that 
        the plan described in this subparagraph shall not be available 
        to the borrower of a Federal Direct PLUS loan made on behalf of 
        a dependent student''; and
            (2) in subsection (e)(1), by inserting at the end the 
        following: ``An income contingent repayment plan under this 
        subsection shall be available to a borrower of a Federal Direct 
        PLUS loan made on behalf of a dependent student or a Federal 
        Direct Consolidation Loan the proceeds of which were used to 
        discharge the liability on such a Federal Direct PLUS loan.''.

SEC. 3. INCOME-BASED REPAYMENT PLAN.

    (a) Clarification of IBR.--Section 455(d)(1)(E) of such Act (20 
U.S.C. 1087e(d)(1)(E)) is amended by striking ``, except that the plan 
described in this subparagraph shall not be available to the borrower 
of a Federal Direct PLUS Loan made on behalf of a dependent student or 
a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan, if the proceeds of such loan were 
used to discharge the liability on such Federal Direct PLUS Loan or a 
loan under section 428B made on behalf of a dependent student''.
    (b) IBR.--Section 493C of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 1098e) is amended--
            (1) by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
    ``(a) Definition.--In this section, the term `partial financial 
hardship', when used with respect to a borrower, means that for such 
borrower--
            ``(1) the annual amount due on the total amount of loans 
        made, insured, or guaranteed under part B or D to a borrower as 
        calculated under the standard repayment plan under section 
        428(b)(9)(A)(i) or 455(d)(1)(A), based on a 10-year repayment 
        period; exceeds
            ``(2) 15 percent of the result obtained by calculating, on 
        at least an annual basis, the amount by which--
                    ``(A) the borrower's, and the borrower's spouse's 
                (if applicable), adjusted gross income; exceeds
                    ``(B) 150 percent of the poverty line applicable to 
                the borrower's family size as determined under section 
                673(2) of the Community Services Block Grant Act (42 
                U.S.C. 9902(2)).'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``(other than an 
                excepted PLUS loan or excepted consolidation loan)'';
                    (B) in paragraph (6)(A), by striking ``(other than 
                an excepted PLUS loan or excepted consolidation 
                loan)''; and
                    (C) in paragraph (7), by striking ``(other than a 
                loan under section 428B or a Federal Direct PLUS 
                Loan)''; and
            (3) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``(other than an 
                excepted PLUS loan or excepted consolidation loan),''; 
                and
                    (B) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ``(other than 
                an excepted PLUS loan or excepted consolidation 
                loan)''.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE AND APPLICATION.

    The amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date of 
enactment of this Act, and shall apply with respect to each borrower 
who, on or after such date--
            (1) has an outstanding balance on a Federal Direct PLUS 
        Loan (or a loan under section 428B) made on behalf of a 
        dependent student or a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan the 
        proceeds of which were used to discharge the liability on such 
        a Federal Direct PLUS loan (or on such a loan under section 
        428B); and
            (2) is repaying or will repay such loan pursuant to an 
        income-contingent repayment plan under section 455(e) of the 
        Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(e)) or an income-
        based repayment plan under section 493C of such Act (20 U.S.C. 
        1098e).
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